The use of AI in music production tools sits along a spectrum. At one end are tools like Suno, that are designed to create entire musical compositions from scratch. At the other end of the spectrum are tools like Lemonaide Collab Club and iZotope’s new Plasma plugin, which assist with one specific part of the creative process.
In the case of iZotope Plasma, that specific part, is saturation. Here, we’re going to take a look at Plasma and how it might fit into a modern musician’s workflow. We’ll consider its strengths, weaknesses, use cases, and how it compares to traditional static saturation plugins.
What is iZotope Plasma?
iZotope are renowned for their industry-leading music production and audio engineering tools. From their Ozone mastering software package to their RX audio repair powerhouse, iZotope have been using AI to enhance and streamline the creative process for some time.
While many of iZotope’s existing plugins are all-in-one audio multitools, their new plugin, Plasma, is different. Plasma is designed to do one thing and one thing only, and that’s applying dynamic and content-dependent saturation to whatever signal you feed it. Using iZotope’s Flux Saturation technology, Plasma analyzes your audio signal and applies what it calculates is the appropriate saturation.
How Does iZotope Plasma Work?
Let’s explore Plasma’s features and operation.
Selecting a Tuning Profile
Before you begin applying saturation, Plasma first invites you to select a Tuning Profile from the drop-down menu at the top left of the interface. Here, you can choose from a range of instruments and characteristics, from mastering to drum processing, basses to vocals. With upwards of 20 profiles, you should be able to find an appropriate setting for your intended use case.
These profiles dictate how Plasma’s algorithm applies saturation to the incoming signal. While selecting the appropriate profile is a good place to start, there’s nothing stopping you from experimenting with different profiles.
Applying Saturation with Flux Saturate
At the heart of Plasma’s operation is its Flux Saturate control. This allows you to dial in the amount of saturation being applied to your signal. If Plasma was a one-knob plugin, this would be its only control.
The manual states that the amount shown in the Flux Saturate dial roughly corresponds to the number of decibels of boost being applied. The Flux Saturate control applies saturation exponentially, making it easier to apply subtle and controlled saturation with values up to 3.0, and more aggressive saturation with values from 3.0 to 10.0.
Using the Display Section and Action Region Handles
As we increase the Flux Saturate amount, the Display Section shows Plasma at work. This is not only useful for visualising where and how much Plasma is saturating a signal, but also for visualising how each of the Tuning Profiles affects the processing.
By default, Plasma applies saturation across the entire frequency spectrum. The Action Region handles tell Plasma where you want to apply saturation. For example, if you want to saturate your drum bus but not the hi-hats, you can adjust the upper Action Region handle so that it doesn’t apply processing to frequencies above 4kHz.
Refining the Processing with Attack and Release
One of Plasma’s most unique features is its Attack and Release parameters. You can think of these as working the same way as any other Attack and Release controls, with lower values causing the processing to respond to signals more quickly.
This is particularly useful when saturating signals with both transient and sustained information, such as pianos, synth plucks, basses and even vocals.
Apply Tube-style Saturation with Overdrive
Another trick up Plasma’s sleeve is its inbuilt Overdrive algorithm, which emulates a non-linear style of tube saturation. Like the Flux Saturate control, low Overdrive values will result in clean, subtle saturation, useful during the mastering process. Higher Overdrive values can really dirty up a sound, making it more suited to applying creative saturation and even distortion.
Monitoring Your Processing
While Plasma can enter the territory of very obvious saturation, it’s equally as capable of applying more subtle saturation too. When applying the latter, it can be difficult to hear how the processing is affecting your signal. iZotope clearly considered this, and added a Delta button to Plasma.
Engaging the Delta button allows you to monitor the difference between the dry and wet signals, so you can isolate the processing being applied and hear exactly what Plasma is doing. Using the Delta function means you can be confident in your mix decisions as you adjust the parameters within Plasma.
Next to the Delta button, you’ll find the all-important Bypass button. This allows you to temporarily disable all processing so that you can A/B your dry and wet signals. It’s important to note that Plasma features AI-powered autogain, so you shouldn’t notice any drastic differences in level when toggling the Bypass button.
Channel Processing Modes
In its default configuration, Plasma applies stereo processing to your signal, with the left and right channels being processed equally. You can also opt to engage Mid/Side mode in order to process the middle and sides of your signal independently.
Another of Plasma’s unique features is its Transient/Sustain mode, giving you the ability to process the transient and sustained portion of your signal separately. Combined with the Attack and Release controls, this gives you unprecedented control over the way your saturation responds to transient information.
In both Mid/Side and Transient/Sustain mode, an additional section is shown at the top of the Display Section. Here, you can use the tabs to select which component you’re adjusting. You can also bypass each component’s processing, or solo them to really hear what’s going on.
How Does Plasma Actually Perform in a Project?
We put Plasma to work on a range of audio sources including entire drum buses, bass sounds, synth pads and vocals. Here’s how it performed.
Ease of Use
It’s clear that this plugin is pitched at beginner to intermediate users compared to many of iZotope’s do-it-all plugins. It’s quick and easy to start dialling in some tasteful saturation with the intuitive controls. If you’re not sure what something does and how it might affect your processing, you can hover over any control to view the corresponding tooltip.
The user guide is equally as helpful, and you can access it by clicking on the question mark icon at the top right of the interface. The Delta control is another useful feature, not only for isolating your processing, but for understanding how each of the Tuning Profiles and parameters is altering your sound.
For more advanced users, the three Channel Processing Modes, Attack and Release controls and Action Region Markers grant some extra control. All things considered, we’ve got no complaints about the efficiency and usability of Plasma.
Applying Subtle Saturation
From our perspective, this is where Plasma excels. The Flux Saturation technology seems to really know where to apply saturation, and how much. It’s difficult to get a bad sound out of the plugin when applied sparingly. Additionally, there are over 40 distinctive plugins to get you started.
No matter what source sound we applied Plasma to, the wet signal always sounded fuller, brighter, and more transparent than the dry signal. We used six instances of Plasma on different elements within a single project, and upon toggling them all on and off simultaneously, the positive impact Plasma had on the signal was apparent.
Considering the amount of computing power that seems to be going on behind the scenes, we were also pleasantly surprised with how economical Plasma was on our CPU. Engaging all six instances of the plugin resulted in a negligible difference in our device’s CPU load.
Applying More Extreme Saturation
When it comes to more aggressive saturation and distortion, we find Plasma’s only real weak spot. While pushing the Flux Saturate and Overdrive controls towards their limits doesn’t sound unpleasant, it leaves you wanting slightly more control over the outputted signal.
Although you can use the Action Region Markers to set the frequency range within which Plasma applies saturation, you don’t get any other frequency control than that. A parametric EQ-style interface would grant even greater control over how Plasma applies saturation across the frequency spectrum.
With this in mind, those looking for more extreme forms of saturation and distortion might consider other plugins which boast deeper controls than Plasma. That said, at the very competitive price point of €55/£49/$49, you might need to spend a little more to get more control.
The Verdict
Whether you’re messing around with mixing for the first time or you’re an experienced mixing maestro, Plasma is a highly valuable tool for applying quick and tasteful saturation to your productions. The simple interface and intuitive controls make it easy and enjoyable to dial in some musical saturation with just a few parameters.
While the more advanced controls do expand Plasma’s potential use cases, particularly in a mastering context, AI has been granted much of the decision-making powers here. This might be a good thing for those looking for a sleek and intuitive saturation experience, but if you’re looking for slightly more control, we’d recommend considering some of the other options on the market.
iZotope Plasma is available now for €55/£49/$49, or there is a 10-day free trial if you want to try it out for yourself before you pull the trigger.
